Giving the Homeless a Home
by NERD-AVENGER
Summary: Originally part of a scheme that never fell through, something, guilt possibly, kept her from kicking him out.
1. Get him clean!

Giving the Homeless a Home

Events in this story take place sometime loosely during The Gang Gets Whacked Part II.

Rickety Cricket was gonna stay over at Deandra's place.

Of course it wasn't her decision.

Originally part of a scheme that never fell through, something (guilt possibly) kept her from kicking him out.

Here's how it went:

First thing she made clear was that she wasn't giving out any freebies. He had to work to stay with her. That meant any hard, manual labor she had to do would now be his job. Anything that required a toolbox or getting dirty would be his responsibility. But first….

He stunk.

UGGHHHHHHHHHHH. It was so gross just thinking about what kind of filth he tracked into the house after living for several months on the street. Dee sprayed copious amounts of air freshener as she led him into her apartment; face scrunched up in disgust as she eyed his pitiful bundled up belongings.

"You," she pointed at him with the end of a broom as if afraid that even pointing at him would get his gross homeless people germs on her, "get in the bathroom and don't come out until you don't smell like shit anymore." To emphasize her point she give him a couple of probes with the broom in the direction of the bathroom.

He wanted to thank her for letting her stay but she wouldn't have it. He wasn't here because of her choice. It was part of whatever messed up scheme that the guys had come up with, like the very scheme that had landed that poor guy on the streets in the first place- and of course it involved manipulating the guy's old high school crush on Dee.

Whatever the guys came up with really wasn't her concern (except it really was, she wants to be a part of their group so badly), her main concern now was getting him clean.

The idiot got sick anyway.

It was an infection. Some wound he got off the streets wasn't treated in time and now here he was, lying comatose practically on her couch while he burned up with a fever.

She growled to herself. Here she was taking care of a guy she'd rather just throw back outside on the streets than fuss over his illness. Currently, she had a wet cloth to his forehead. He was sweating hard, and his face was red with the fever.

She thinks she should be concerned by his high temperature, but instead she's more worried about having his gross sweat all over her couch. What if she catches some weird virus that he has? (she's not even sure how it really works… way to have a college education)

He whimpers a bit in his sleep, and she can't help but think how annoying it sounds to her (cruel, cruel bitch…). His whimpers become groans of pain, and she considers taping his mouth shut before he sits up suddenly.

"H-hey! …. You, go back to sleep, or something." Dee says, hands reluctantly on his shoulders, trying to force him back to sleep. Dee was never very good under pressure so if this turns out bad, she really doesn't know what she can do to help (she was sort of just hoping that he'd just lie down for a couple of hours and then get better).

He's breathing fast, and she wonders if it would have been better to just take him to a hospital (y'know, save herself the trouble of actually being nurturing for once), but he's not even looking at her. In fact, he seems fin-

Before she knew it, he ripping off his shirt, and an angry red gash fills her view. Automatically, she shies away from him, expletives falling from her mouth left and right as she stares horrified at a nasty, and rather deep wound extending from his solar plexus down to hip. It didn't look fully healed either, with some blood and pus oozing a little from his sudden movement.

She doesn't remember him telling her exactly where the wound was, or how he got it. (did he ever mean to reveal it to her after all?) She's panicking now, what should she do? She hurriedly went to her bathroom, nearly taking out a side table and lamp with her hast. Returning with whatever crap she had in her medicine cabinet, she hurriedly searched through the pile for some kind of antiseptic. That's what you do right? Gotta kill the germs?

Nothing she had though could help him. Acne cream, toothpaste, midol (for menstrual relief), and aspirin is all she had (she really should have more considering the crazy crap she and the gang get into) along with an assortment of beauty products, all of which she doubted would help him with his pain.

"Aaaaahhh…. What do I do? What do I do? WHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDO?" Dee didn't want to have ANYTHING to do with this sick homeless man, but thrust into a bad situation, she did what she usually does.

She drinks.

It wasn't a smart idea, but in pure Paddy's Pub fashion, she ran into the kitchen and broke out the vodka, took a couple of shots, stared at the bottle as if realizing something and then rushed over with a towel and bottle in tow.

"Rick…." She shook him gently. His skin burned, and she winced as her eyes trailed back down to the angry looking gash. "MATTHEW." She said this time, with force. His eyes opened slightly to mumble something unintelligibly to her. "Matt, I'm gonna try and clean up this wound for you. I-" She paused, but continued. "I'm going to disinfect it with vodka. It's all I have. Sorry, but this is going to hurt."

Dousing the towel with booze, Dee tensed herself as she carefully applied it to the wound.

Matthew Mara was in pain. Dark, feverish pain. He didn't remember where he was. It was warm, very warm. Different from how it is on the streets. No garbage smell. Dogs barking and cars honking in the distance. When he moved, newspapers didn't crinkled underneath him.

Where was he?

It was so hot. He remembered something. He was running. He thinks the guys were chasing him. They wanted to teabag him and they were getting close.

He has to hide! Where? Where?

A dumpster. He remembers he jumped and hid there. Glass cut him, but he kept quiet, screams of pain caught in his throat. He WON'T be humiliated again.

But the pain is still there. It's throbbing, oozing red all over him. It's hot too. Too hot for his shirt. He takes it off, but it still burns.

Then…

A different kind of burn. Cold and yet blinding white. He thinks he screamed, he's not sure, but there's a pressure on the wound now, and it stings hotter and hotter, scrapping at torn flesh and it intensifies, before it's gone.

He's sweating profusely, but he's still tense. Will the new pain come back? Time stretches on endlessly, before something breaks the heat: a cool hand on his face.

Matt fell into a dreamless sleep after that.

Once he was well enough, she made sure she cleaned him up. That meant getting a haircut, shaving all facial hair, wearing some of the clothes that she "borrowed" from Mac and Dennis, and FOR GOD'S SAKES brushing his teeth!

Ew. She just can't get the thought of how he ate that horse shit back in high school just to gain a kiss from her…. First, how desperate is he? It's not like she was that great of a girl to begin with, and no sane guy would do such a disgusting act, even for a girlfriend. Second, what makes him think that eating horse shit would make him want to kiss him anyway? It's not courageous, or romantic, and his breath would stink like manure. To Dee, telling him to eat a horse turd for a kiss was her way of telling him to get away from her (she didn't think he'd actually do it) with the added bonus of appearing "cool" to the popular kids.

She never had any intention of kissing him.

Never.

Maybe he thought that doing something stupid was what being in love was all about, but it wasn't to her.

Then again she's never actually been in love before. Hm…


	2. Save me I'm drunk

One day she caught him reading a bible.

There he was, having worried the crap outta her because of his fever (he still hasn't done all the work she told him to do!), sitting on HER couch, and reading HER bible (not that she really cared, it was just something she inherited from her mother, but still it's HER'S not HIS!).

Plus it was stupid.

Who really believes in that kinda crap? Some untouchable, but all knowing being who controls the world and yet lets bad things happen to good people.

She told him just that.

He smiled at her, saying he understood why she thought that way. "God works in mysterious ways, you never know his plans, but you can bet that if you have faith in him, good things will come out of hardship."

Of all people, for him to say that, it kinda baffled her. It didn't make sense obviously. To her, it sounded like a bullshit excuse so that people can continue smiling over unfair and suckish circumstances.

He was paging through the bible now. "Be strong and courageous." he said looking thoughtfully at a page, "Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6." He looked at her. "Believing in a higher power isn't something that one does because it's logical and it makes sense; it means that you don't have to be alone when you need help, and that there will always be someone out there who loves you."

Sweet Dee got chills as he said that. For some reason, it sounded like he was referring back to their time in high school- the loneliness and fear that came with being on the bottom of the food chain. She knows that she thought more than once about ending it all, taking her pathetic excuse of a life and ending all the pain (a permanent solution to a temporary problem), but instead she grew to ignore that pain, essentially, to become the tormenter instead of the tormentee.

The Dee that she had become was in reality a cold shell of what she could have been.

And still she was worthless.

Sweet Dee got up quickly from the couch, brushing off his statement with a cool "whatever" and made herself a drink- a lot of drinks in fact- before she stumbled back to the couch feeling better (read: number). Here, he read passages out to her, and she listened. She doesn't remember how it started, maybe it was because she told him to tell her a story (a good one! With lots of violence, and death, and gore!), and being a former priest he agreed.

It was… nice. At some point, her head came down to rest on his shoulder while he read, a warm buzz and the even tone in his voice lulling her to sleep. In her mind she reasoned that it was only the booze that kept her there, since she could only really grasp a handful of words that he was saying anyway, but deep down she knew that it had to do with something more. She hasn't gone to church since…. Forever ago (probably went when she was girl, but she can't remember what they were about). Does this count as going? Maybe all that hocus pocus Rick was saying might actually help…. Maybe…

Maybe she could save her soul.

Pfft…. Like that's possible (besides being drunk while falling asleep on a man who you personally helped renounce his faith for is probably not gonna be balanced out by listening to a couple of stories. Don't think God works that way).

Matthew stopped reading as a hand came up and knocked him in the head. Sweet Dee was sprawled rather ungracefully on the couch, in a deep, drunken sleep. Laying the book aside, Matt adjusted himself so that she'd be more comfortable, her head resting on his knee instead of wedged between his arm and the couch. His hand brushed a few strands of hair out from her face, and he couldn't help but think that he must be dreaming.

If only it could be just like this in real life, where she could love him and he'd love her, the two of them sharing a warm bed at night with her smiling face to wake up to in the morning, happy to see him.

He shook himself of the vision, and sat, content that he could even be here. He was an honorable man (perhaps slowing being corrupted by the gang), and he wouldn't take advantage of a girl just because he can. He's desperate for her love, but it's balanced by a strange control he has over his emotions (maybe he's just got great restraint?).

Besides…. This is heaven compared to his previous choice. He was content before with never having her; he dedicated his life to the church because he felt like he couldn't give up his love and live a normal life with another woman. To him, Dee was the one. It might be stupid to think that, but this is a long unrequited love. Born from their shared status as social pariahs, he believed the two of them could have been their sole comforts from a world that had cursed them for being different. It was a foolish, romantic notion, but one that could never be put to the test because of Dee's constant refusals.

Now that he's left the faith, with no chance of going back, all he has to look forward to now is a chance that Deandra might one day see him as more than just some loser from high school.


	3. Rain sucks!

She hates the rain.

It's usually not like this in Philadelphia, but on rare occasions it pours like a motherfucker.

And lucky her, she had to out walking with Rickety Cricket back from the bar (she needed help tending the bar, cuz the guys sure weren't going to).

As it starts to pour buckets and minivan sized cars, she feels Rick's hand close over hers.

"Hey, Dee!" he shouts over the roar of the heaven's pissing away Niagara falls over their heads. "Follow me! I know where we can keep dry! Y'know, wait out the storm!"

"What!" She shouts back only catching a few words of what he was saying before her arm gets yanked hard as he takes off running.

He can run fast, which she thought was strange considering how he's the one who wore leg braces in high school. Plus, she eats better than him (not by too much, she still needs to watch her weight). How can this scrawny guy run faster than her?

As it was, it was hard keeping up with him (curses for not working out more!), and she felt like it was a sketchy idea letting Rick take to some place she didn't want to go, but it was really flooding at this point, so why not?

A short while later and with Dee panting like a maniac, growling that she was gonna have another heart attack, they finally arrive at Rickety's so called "dry spot".

The doorway of an abandoned building. Seriously?

At least it was deep set in the building, and both of them could fit comfortably under it without getting blasted by freezing cold rain.

Dee coughs and groans as she crawls into the corner, still out of breath and a little pissed that she had to run in such unforgiving weather. Rick, the asshole, sits himself right next to her wedging her in near the wall and himself. She's about to protest when she realizes that not only does he keep some of the wind and rain out but he's kinda warm, so she shuts up and thinks she'll just use him. Just like a warm bag of meat or something.

"How the fuck can you run so fast? Shit, I'm dying here!" Dee coughs again before settling in closer to the wall.

Rick smiled before rubbing a hand on his leg thoughtfully.

"When you lose something, you realize the true value of what you had. In my case, I wasn't going to lose my legs again. I appreciate being able to walk better than most people. Running to me… it's freedom. Running is how I survive here on the streets."

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaaay… didn't want your whole philosophy on the subject, but okay." Dee doesn't know really what she should say at this point, instead wishing hard that there was some booze for her to ease the awkwardness.

"Haha… well, it's okay Dee. I get it. It's just something I've been thinking for a while. Not many people think about how great it is to be able to simply walk around with leg braces, but I think even you can understand how it feels like to be denied normalcy."

Kay, now he's getting personal! Dee's eyes narrowed and she prayed for God to send her some booze right now, either that or to end the rain. "Well, having a back brace taught me that people are assholes." She feels like she's gonna tear up a little about that, but she continues on anyway. "And it sounds like to me that have leg braces taught you that you had no chance of running away from asshole people before, but now that don't have them, you can."

"It's not like that." She looks up to see him focused somewhere off in the distance, beyond the pouring rain. She waited uncomfortably for him to say something more, and a tense silence follows. She's about to break it with some complaint about being wet and freezing when he spoke up again.

"It's a given that there are bad people out there." He looks down at his hands, then up at her. "But without the bad, we can't understand the value of good. If bullies didn't pick on the weak, then who would be the heroes to save them when they have fallen? Or how would we be able to change to protect ourselves when we can't be saved by others? We all have some bad in us, but coexisting with that sin is a chance to redeem ourselves. I just think that my experience in high school taught me that it can't be helped what happens to you, but how you react to it, that's something that can be changed."

She's a bit puzzled about this. "You joined the church because…. What? You wanted to help people?"

He looks embarrassed now. "Uh, well… yeah. That and because the one woman I liked didn't like me back so…"

Whoa. Sure his whole crush on her wasn't exactly a secret, but for him to give away his life because of her?

They sat in silence again, and this time it wasn't so serious, just awkward. She's got things on her mind, and so does he. If she thought more on the subject, she'd be less hostile to him, considering how he never really seemed to catch a break ever since she reentered his life, but instead she decided to focus on a different subject:

Grinning, she asked him, "So…. Does this mean you've never gotten laid before?"

After that, they spent the rest of the rainy evening huddled close, chatting amiably over their failed romantic conquests.

After her run through the rain with Matt, Dee came home embarrassed to find her make up all smeared and runny. It wasn't that she WANTED to look good for him (because c'mon, he's a loser), but it just made her feel self-conscious to have been out in public looking like a drowned rat.

Dee grabbed a wad of tissue paper and make up remover and began the laborious task of removing and reapplying her makeup.

Thick black mascara and faded lipstick stained the white cotton black and red.

After rubbing her face raw, Dee looked into the mirror to find a tired, thirty something year old, who just didn't look pretty. It almost made her want to cry.

Sighing, she pulled out dark eyeliner and started to redefine her eyes. It always seemed like they disappeared into her stupid bird like face otherwise. Her hand was on the mascara when she looked at her face.

Huh. She held off the mascara and went to some foundation, smoothing her face of any blemishes. No bronzer this time. She always felt like she was forcing her tan a bit too much with it on.

A bit of blush on cheeks and a light rosy lip gloss to finish the look, and!

Dee was looking at a younger, more innocent woman.

She, in fact, looked sweet.

She wondered why she thought globbing on make up made her look good. With a bit more control, she can stop coming off as some vindictive bitch, and actually look….

Decent. (she knows she's not that attractive, maybe if she went back to her natural blond hair color she'd look less washed out)

Sweet Dee took one last look at her face, before angrily wiping everything off.

Why does she want to look innocent anyway? It's not like it's gonna change what she's done.

Besides, she's gotten used to the cold mask she wears.


	4. Think hard

She wasn't her usual self. Before she felt like she didn't have a conscience. Hanging out with the guys did that to her. She'd think she was so smart, with high enough morals that she didn't have to participate in any of their stupid schemes, but when it came down to money or hot boys, she fell faster than a brick on Frank's car.

Thing is, she just as shameless and violent as them.

It wasn't like that in the beginning.

She was focused on her career. She took acting classes (didn't excel in them, but she took them!), worked hard at the bar (she couldn't make many drinks, but hey! She was still working hard somehow.), and she tried to reason with the guys whenever they came up with some get rich quick scheme or a mission for badassery or vengeance.

In the end, she had reduced herself into becoming them.

Well, the buttmonkey of the gang is more like it.

With Matt living at her apartment though, it seemed like she was getting less and less involved with them. Not exactly sure how it started, but she found herself arguing with him over the stupidest things, and getting into all sorts of debates.

Religion, politics, romance- she didn't know much of any of those things, but he sure did, and it was interesting getting into all sorts of ignorant fights over it with him.

And at the end of those "conversations" with him, she got a lot out of it.

For one, he gave her companionship. He was someone who often disagreed with her opinions (opinions formed from hanging out with idiots all day long), but he was someone who at least listened to what she had to say.

The same can't be said whenever she hung out with those misogynic bastards, and it was a refreshing to be able to speak her mind and be heard.

The fact that she could come home from a frustrating day at work and vent her frustrations to him was liberating, way better than a diary. He even gave her advice that, though a bit on the naïve side, she found comforting.

She thought that it was her duty to make fix what she had otherwise ruined about him, but instead it seems like he's the one making improvements within her every day.

High school sucked.

It was so embarrassing to think about what she was back then. The _Aluminum Monster_. It wasn't HER fault that she needed a back brace, but teenagers can be so cruel. The fact that her brother was one of the most popular kids in school did nothing to stop the constant teasing, and her already low self-esteem dropped lower as she found herself without a single friend.

Well… that's not entirely true.

Her "best" friend was a girl she kept around because they were both outcasts, and it sometimes helped to put her friend down (Fatty McGoo) with Dee's assertions that one day she would break free of her metal bondage, and become a beautiful, world famous actress. To build herself even more, she even had a guy (Rickety Cricket) who liked her- someone whose feelings she could stomp all over because she knew she was so much more better than him, and she wouldn't degrade herself by thinking that he was the best chance at happiness that she got (what about the cute jock, Bill? If only she could handle her gag reflex around him…).

What she had was a pitiful pride in herself, and it was unfortunate that her experience only taught her to aspire to become one of those cruel, popular kids who tormented her in high school, instead of realizing that appearances didn't matter. Kindness matter. Compassion mattered.

When Dee got back to her apartment to find her sink fixed, and new shelves assembled, with her new dvd player being installed by Matt, she didn't yell at him to have had everything done sooner. She didn't dump more work on him to do after he was done doing that.

She thought about it for a bit, and then came back with a beer.

He looked up at her confusion when she just handed it to him wordlessly and left.

Saying a genuine thank you, without sarcasm or a hidden agenda, is hard for Dee. Getting her real feelings and turning them into words is hard, but hopefully he can understand this.

"Thanks, Deandra."

She blushes a bit (why? It's just a stupid beer.), and shouts back that he work faster, because there's this new dvd she bought a while back that she wanted to watch, and that whatever, if he wanted to watch it, he could too….

What's with the change of heart? He's only doing what he's supposed to be doing. Just because she thinks it's nice that he does so without complaining, or bothering her, shouldn't that be expected? It's what normal people do.

Dee is determined not to overthink things.

But the smelly hobo who ate horse shit for her back in high school is slowly being replaced by a guy whose kindness has started to change her.


	5. Come back!

She came to find him. Apparently the guys figured that it was about time that they got the old Dee back.

And how would they do this?

By getting rid of Rickety Cricket.

She doesn't know what they said to Matt, but she knows what they wanted: they wanted the Dee who would do crazy shit with them. Neglect the bar with them. The Dee that they could abuse and ignore, and everything would be alright because Dee was desperate for companionship. That Dee. And if she had felt like she needed to be wanted and like she belonged, she would have gone back with them, except….

She didn't feel that way anymore.

There was someone who she felt could make her feel good about herself without having to take others down with her.

Someone who believed she had some worth.

This was the guy that she was looking for.

As she ran blindly down side streets and alley ways, she thought about what she would say to him.

What could she say? She single-handedly ruined his life. She should have no right to use him anymore than she already had.

She caused him pain.

"Goddamnit!" Dee kicked the air as she ran out of possible alleyways he could be in.

She's been looking for him since this morning, and yet no sign of him.

She leaned up against a graffiti covered wall and weighed her options.

Go back home without him? Or continue aimlessly walking around on the off chance that she'll find him randomly? But what if-

Oh god.

A big, burly homeless man. Popping out from behind the trashcans opposite the wall she's leaning on.

Time to go now.

"Kay, I'm just gonna go leave…." She says as she back away from the stranger (he could be some cannibal rapist! Run bitch!).

Someone grabs her hand.

Her punch is stopped midway through the air when she realizes who it is.

"Matt-" Then her hand is being yanked, and they're off running, like it was back when they ran in the rain.

They're back again, not inside the doorway of the abandoned building, but inside it this time (turns out it was a church, no wonder he'd go here).

Except this time he's pissed.

"What the hell are you doing, Dee!" He's mad, and yet he's the one who's been following her, shouldn't she be mad that he didn't have the goddamn decency to reveal himself before she was about to be molested?

She told him just that, with a lot more cursing than what is deemed appropriate in the house of God, but she's frightened and confused right now. Why did he leave?

She didn't think about it then, but she kissed him. Never mind that he's been living on the street and was dirty and had hobo germs on him, that didn't matter.

The kiss is a little bit of a let down. He's angry, so he's not kissing her back as much as she would like, but that's not the point of that. It's because she wants him to know.

She came because she realized something. She wants to be forgiven. She thought she was doing him a favor when she let him stay with her. She figured once he left that it'd be over- she'd even cheer and sigh and say "THANK GOD HE'S GONE!" But it wasn't that.

She took away his job. His house. The food that he could be eating. The bed he would have been able to sleep in. The love he would have been able to have if he had just gotten over her and she hadn't tried to lead him on just to make herself feel better.

She was a terrible person.

And she needed him.

She got down on her knees, held his hands, and told him so.

He just got down there with her and hugged her.

"From now on…. Home is wherever your heart is."


End file.
